


Behind the Mask

by TheOtakuArtist



Series: Behind the Mask - MLB [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, My first fanfiction!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-19
Packaged: 2020-01-15 15:09:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18501511
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOtakuArtist/pseuds/TheOtakuArtist
Summary: Chat finally has enough of the waiting, and decides to confess - before something unthinkable happens.





	1. Fear of Love

“My Lady – My lady!”  
Marinette’s earrings vibrated loudly as Chat Noir desperately called for ‘his lady.’  
Tikki groggily woke up from her nap, noticing the urgent message. Marinette did not - her ears covered by huge headphones, playing the newest Jagged Stone album at full blast.

“Um…Marinette? I think that Chat Noir needs your help.” the Kwami pleaded, but to no avail she continued to hum the catchy song as she worked on her newest hat; perfect for Adrien’s next Fashion show. With every beat of the music, she worked – thread by thread, beat by beat.   
With a sigh Tikki muttered, “This is Paris’ best hope?”

Before the Kwami could try again – Chat screamed as loud as he could into his staff, yelling once more for Ladybug.  
Marinette’s eyes widened in surprise, as her earrings shouted with the message. Her ears began ringing as the music was quiet compared to the shout. With a grumble, she took the headphones off and answered the call.

“Ugh, you didn’t have to scream – I could have gone deaf!”

The cat on the other end of the call snickered in surprise.

“Well I apologize for disturbing you but well, there’s kinda a supervillain on the loose? Nothing too big – just setting fires and whatnot.”

“What? I – I’ll be there right away!”

She couldn’t get one day off, could she?

“Spots on Tikki!”  
In a flash, she transformed into the recognizable spotted superhero. Her Yo-yo’s screen opened, revealing the location to meetup that Chat had sent her. 

 

As she hopped from building to building, thoughts swarmed around in her head.  
Honestly – another villain? This would be the 9th one this week, and it was only Wednesday! Normally, Chat and her would fight three or maybe four at most in a week, but nine was ridiculous. It was hard enough protecting Paris with all the homework and hats she had to make, but this was making her have to sacrifice time with friends and less time to study. Not only was Marinette having a difficult time, she noticed how poor Tikki was doing recently. All the constant battles were taking a strain on the poor kwami, forcing many naps and snack breaks to recharge. It was odd though – Chat seemed…happier with all the constant battles. Not only was he making even more cringey puns per day, he also didn’t seem tired. Ladybug shrugged off these thoughts as she saw the Cat in question, sitting atop a rooftop in the distance as the sun began to set, bathing all of Paris in an otherworldly glow.

The red-clad superhero landed onto the rooftop, almost tripping before catching herself.

“I-I’m here! Where is he?” Ladybug frantically exclaimed, with a gasp, taking deep breathes from the journey.

Strange – she never felt like this before when transformed.  
The silhouetted cat bared a grin, pointing towards the famous Eiffel Tower.

“The culprit is over there my lady – shall we go?”

Ladybug continued to breath heavily, drops of sweat started to form on her brow. Chat immediately took notice, his emerald eyes widening in fear and confusion.

“Ah, are you alright Ladybug?! D-Did something happen? I-Has this – I, I mean, did-“

Before he could fumble more with his words, Ladybug calmed her breathing and responded with an awkward laugh.

“Haha! I’m fine Kitty – it’s just exhausting fighting so much everyday-“

Before she could finish her sentence, Chat picked her up with seemingly no effort – something that Ladybug would have never had expected.

“C-Chat!” 

A huge blush spread to her cheeks as the dorky, pun-loving cat did the most romantic act in all the teenage-romance novels she regularly read.   
She expected him to say something stupid – put her down at least! Instead, he kept a serious and stoic expression.

“If you’re too tired m’lady, then I can carry you there myself. I wouldn’t want to see you getting hurt.”

She couldn’t even respond – this was so out of character. She didn’t have feelings for him, yet she couldn’t stop thinking that if this was Adrien saying this…she would have melted in his arms.   
He turned towards the Eiffel tower, before extending his staff, shooting into the air with his “lady” in tow.  
As he flew through the air, from building to building, Ladybug laid there in awe – his blonde hair flowing in the wind, reflected the bright orange glow of the sun.   
In only a few seconds – which seemed like years to the teenage girl – they arrived atop the tower. Chat released Ladybug from his arms, with a small smile.

“C-Chat I…” Ladybug mumbled before remembering why they had gone there in the first place.   
Her blush disappeared, and she looked around on edge.

“Ah – Where’s the supervillain – you said-!”

But Ladybug didn’t get to finish that sentence either, as Chat took her hand in his own, and laid a meaningful kiss.

“M’lady…I need to tell you something – I…”

His calm demeanor changed into a flustered mess quite suddenly, she could have sworn he even muttered, “I can’t believe I did that – Plagg, why did you tell me this was a good idea?” under his breath.  
Ladybug’s heart was racing – did Chat just kiss her hand?! No boy had ever done that before – she was supposed to be the one having dumb crushes, not Chat!  
Chat realized the silence and bewilderment on Ladybug’s bright red face and she tried to find words, finding that she must have forgotten the entire French language. 

“Ah! I’m sorry, it’s just that I…I’ve kept this in so long and I need to tell you…”

His heart started to race, and his face beet red, accompanying Ladybug’s perfectly.  
He was nervous, scared and excited all at once.

“Ladybug I…”

But what if she said no, he thought. What if his fears were true and she wouldn’t love him? He realized that he couldn’t let that happen - No, it was too much of a risk.

“Ladybug – I…I need to know who you are.”

Oh no - that question; Marinette feared that question the moment she transformed for the first time.  
Her eyebrows lowered, her eyes avoiding Chat’s.

“You…You know that I’ve told you before. We can’t-“

“I know…” he sighed “We can’t reveal our identities to anyone, not even to ourselves, otherwise Hawkmoth could know. You’ve told me countless times Bugaboo.”

“And you’ve gotten the same answer every time. I – Wait, there was no real supervillain, was there?” Ladybug questioned, her eyebrows raised.

He ignored the question, pulling Ladybug into a large embrace. His voice started to quiver, “I-I can’t keep on living like this, you mean too much to me. I want to know you more, your favorite food, your favorite song, dumb things like that in your normal life. I can’t keep on trying to figure out what’s behind that mask anymore - it’s killing me.”

Ladybug pushed away from the embrace, shocked from his deep words. She was going to speak up but stopped when she noticed the small remnants of tears, sprinkled on his mask. 

“Chat…I…”

“I hate it – we only see each other when we’re forced to fight someone, and then immediately have to go our separate ways. My life isn’t perfect, and boy do I hate it sometimes, but I would love to share that with you.”

“Chat – how can you say this – we don’t even know each other!”

“Know each other? Ha – you do realize that we could easily fix that issue, right? You don’t get that I worry about you? That I think about you after I see you take some hard blows sometimes? That I think if you go to the same school as me, or if we’ve talked before out of costume? I just – I want to know the real you!”

“You don’t get to feel that way!”

Ladybug shouted, her voice probably reaching all of Paris. Chat’s heart sunk as he heard these words.

“It isn’t safe – if we revealed our identities, it wouldn’t just be us in danger – it’d be our family, our friends. You don’t think that Hawk Moth wouldn’t hurt the people we love once he knew our weakness’?”

“You think I don’t care about that? Life will always have risks but knowing the person I…the person I care about most is much more important to me. I’d make sure that he’d never find out about either of us – I refuse to live in that fear! If I can’t protect you, is it even worth it?! Ladybug, I--!”

*CRASH*

And before he could even mutter those words, the tower began to shake violently. A huge explosion of vibrant white appeared, revealing numerous butterflies. The insects flew in different directions, revealing the culprit inside – making the heroes both gasp in surprise and fear. 

“Haha…it’s nice to see you two – I thought I’d say hello.”

They were so unprepared – the terror of Paris Hawkmoth was suddenly here, ready to attack.  
Little did they know that their lives were about to change forever.


	2. Hiding Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out of nowhere, Hawkmoth makes his entrance - with a plan up his sleeve...

“Haha…it’s nice to see you two – I thought I’d say hello.”

 

“H-Hawkmoth?!”

 

The two heroes yelled his name at once, both frightened to see the terror of Paris right in front of them. They would have never expected to see Hawkmoth in the flesh, especially considering that he would always send an akumatized victim to fight for him instead.

Chat was taken off guard when Hawkmoth immediately turned his gaze to Ladybug, sending a swarm of insects toward her. Ladybug stood there in awe, frozen from the shock of it all. Chat turned to Ladybug – _Why was she just standing there?_ She didn’t move an inch, her face twisted in horror as she couldn’t understand how to react in time.

 

“MY LADY!”

 

Chat jumped forward, pushing Ladybug to the ground, barely missing the crowd of moths flying towards them. Chat thought for a moment how upset Plagg would be, him doing such a reckless act – but Chat didn’t care, as long as Ladybug was safe.

The spotted Heroine snapped out of her daze, with sudden realization at the danger that she was just in.

 

Standing up she shouted, “Chat – are you alright?!”

 

Chat didn’t answer, staring bullets into Hawkmoth’s eyes – the villain responded with a chuckle, accompanied by a smile before snapping his fingers – a motion directed to the moths.

The insects began to fly all in different directions, some to the right – some to the left.

 

_What was Hawkmoth up to?_ was Chat’s last thought right before the insects began to lunge at the pair. The swarm flew straight towards the middle of the stage, making both Ladybug and Chat jump. To Chat’s surprise, the insects seemingly ignored him, lunging for Ladybug again. Before Ladybug could notice, Chat extended his staff – reaching Ladybug right in time to shield her from the bugs. He used his staff as if it was a sword, hitting any of the insects that would come close to Ladybug. The insects would burst into dust as they were knocked down, one by one.

 

“C-Chat!!” Ladybug yelled, looking earnestly at Chat as he disposed of every butterfly that came her way.

 

All Chat did was glance back at her, his eye brows furrowed as he panicked to find a solution. Ladybug had never seen Chat like this – first, he acted so strongly to the idea of revealing their identities, even holding her as if she were to disappear in that moment only a few minutes earlier. And now, he didn’t act like the childish boy with the cat ears, who always made the constant stupid puns; Now, he acted in fear for her own safety. _Did…Did Chat care for her more than she thought?_

 

Ladybug pushed these thoughts out of her mind as another round of insects began flying straight for her. Without a second to waste, she whipped her yo-yo out, knocking away every stray butterfly that Chat couldn’t get. Using both of their weapons as shields, they tried to protect one another as the seconds went by.

 

“Hahaha – Don’t you get it? It will only be a matter of time before I get your miraculous. Soon, you both will grow tired and one will falter! You can’t escape my grasp now!”

 

Chat let out a gasp when he noticed what Hawk Moth was saying. He only mentioned taking _one_ miraculous – it all made sense now.

_Hawkmoth was only after Ladybug._

As fear filled Chat’s heart, he waited for a gap in attacks. When the butterflies paused for their next move, Chat took ladybug into his arms, extending his staff as he jumped off the Eiffel tower – into the city below.

 

 

As Chat continued to jump from building the building, the moths followed, with Hawkmoth not too far behind. _Crap! What do I do now?_ He hadn’t planned this far ahead – all he wanted to do in the moment was take Ladybug as far away from Hawkmoth as he could. Paris was huge, with many hiding places – yet with so many eyes on him at once, there was no way he could lose their gaze.

 

Ladybug couldn’t catch up with all that had happened in mere seconds. Why did Chat suddenly grab her and bolt? He _never_ would run away from a fight, always taking the enemy head on – even if it was a foolish or reckless decision. Hawkmoth was going to attack Paris, they had to head back – they needed to fight him. However, as she looked up at Chat, she realized the sincerity of his action.

It wasn’t fear of Hawkmoth, it wasn’t a cowardly act.

_He knew more than she did about Hawkmoth’s actions._

As the two continued to move through the City, Ladybug noticed a familiar building – _Dupen-chang Bakery._

 

“C-Chat! The Bakery – Let’s go there!! Jump onto the balcony on the second floor!”

 

“W-What?!” Chat questioned in his hurry. “But that’s – that’s where--!”

 

“Chat just do it! Trust me!”

 

He did trust her with all his heart, running towards the bakery without asking another question. He ran and as he jumped off a rooftop, Ladybug shouted, “LUCKY CHARM!”

A flurry of cherry lights appeared, blinding the insects as an item appeared, falling to the ground below. Ladybug ignored it, not glancing at what the item in need was. Before the blinding flurry ended, they quickly landed onto the top floor’s balcony. Chat barely had enough time to glance at the balcony’s details before his arm was pulled by Ladybug. Even though it wasn’t the time, the boy couldn’t help but blush as Ladybug held his hand. She took out her yo-yo, opening it to reveal a screen – just like his own staff. She clicked on a few buttons before it revealed a small pouch with a key. She hurriedly took the key, bending down to unlock a small trap door on the floor of the balcony.

 

“…How do you have a key?” Chat asked, puzzled at the sight.

 

Ladybug turned in a fluster and began to fumble with her words, saying, “I-er, I got this from – uh, I mean – ahhh this is one of the abilities of my miraculous – like my Lucky Charm!”

 

“Huh…mine doesn’t have that.” Chat remarked.

 

As Ladybug opened the door, it revealed a small ladder down into a room. She went in first, and then Chat followed – before taking one last look behind them. The butterflies thankfully hadn’t caught on and were still swarming the skies.

_But for how long would their hiding place last?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all are enjoying this so far; I've planned out this story and it'll have quite a few chapters - I hope you'll stay along for the ride!

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! So...this is my very first fanfiction - I hope you like it! This was originally going to be a oneshot and starting off, I had no real story in mind - but by the end I planned out multiple chapters!  
> And hey...if you guys really like this - I'll turn it into an animation!


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